Methods of building

ABSTRACT

A method of building houses or flats which is intended to provide the economic advantages of prefabrication by the use of relatively simple on-site techniques in which a concrete slab is laid over the ground area of the building and on this three walls of a first room are cast in reinforced concrete by means of formwork and subsequently a roof is cast over them. This procedure is then continued in respect of each of the rooms of the house, the rooms being arranged so that the open space left by the absence of a fourth wall is closed wholly or partially by a wall of an adjacent room. The roof of the building is completed by pouring additional concrete slabs to cover corridors left between the rooms as a result of the previous steps. Internal doorways are provided at appropriate places in the walls between adjacent rooms, door and window frames being fixed in position in the walls during casting together with conduits for electricity and other services and weatherproof sealing means are provided at the junction of adjacent rooms where required. In building a multi-story building the roof of the building produced as described above is used as the floor slab for the next floor and the same procedures are then followed and repeated for each subsequent floor.

May 9, 1972 Filed NOV. 25, 1970 D. M. KUTER METHODS OF BUILDING |o FIG. IA

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 lrwenlor W Mu: kuflm A Home y May 9, 1972 D. M. KUTER METHODS OF BUILDING 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed NOV. 25, 1970 i br A ltorney May 9, 1972 o. M. KUTER METHODS OF BUILDING 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed NOV. 25, 1970 MOE Inventor pawn. Ml! kufl'a A ttorney United States Patent Office 3,662,044 Patented May 9, 1972 us. or. 264-34 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of building houses or fiats which is intended tov provide. the economic advantages of prefabrication by the use of relatively simple on-site techniques in which a concrete slab is laid over the ground area of the building and on this three walls of a first room are cast in reinforced concrete by means of formwork and subsequently a roof is cast. over them. This procedure is then continued in respect of each of the rooms of the house, the rooms being arranged so that the open space left by the absence of a fourth wall is closed wholly or partially by a wall of an adjacent room. The roof of the building is completed by'pouringadditional concrete slabs to cover corridors left between the rooms as a result of the previous steps. In-

teriial doorways are provided at appropriate places in the walls between-adjacent rooms, door and WlIldOW frames being fixed in position in the walls during casting together with conduits for electricity and other services and weatherproof sealing means are provided at the junction of adjacent roomswhere required. In building a multistorey building the roof of the building produced as described above is used as the floor slab for the next fioor and the same procedures are then followed and repeated for each subsequent tflOOl'.

The present invention relates to a method of building particularly adapted to the construction of houses and blocks of flats where it is desired to reduce costs to a minimum.

Whereas there have been many previous proposals for the production of buildings from reinforced concrete, some of which involved the prefabrication of parts of the building and their subsequent transport and assembly on the site and some of which involved the use of formwork on the site, it is believed that the present invention provides a method of construction which, while avoiding the high capital costs of prefa'brication .away from the site and the need for heavy lifting devices, utilises relatively simple on-site techniques in such a manner as to provide many of the advantages of prefabrication, such as speed of erection and low cost per building.

The invention consists in the method of building consisting in the following sequence of operations:

(a) Casting a unitary floor slab of reinforced concrete over the whole ground area of the building,

(b) Casting on the floor slab by means of suitable formwork three walls of reinforced concrete, to a first room,

() Casting on said three walls a roof slab in reinforced concrete,

(d) Casting three walls and a roof of additional rooms in turn on the unitary slab in the same manner as the first room, the rooms being juxtaposed in such a manner that the fourth wall of each room is closed wholly or partially by a wall of an adjacent room,

(e) Completing the roof structure; internal doorways being provided at appropriate spaces in the walls of individual rooms, door and window frames being fixed in position in the walls during casting together with conduits for electricity and other services and weatherproof sealing means being provided at the junction of adjacent rooms where required.

The invention may be applied to the construction of multistorey units by constructing a first floor as described above and then repeating the procedure on top of that floor using the roof structure of the (floor as the unitary slab of the second floor.

In order that the invention may be better understood and put into practice a preferred form thereof is hereinafter described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a series of diagrams FIGS. 1A to 1G illustrating in plan the successive steps in the building of ahouse,

FIG. 2 shows the formwork in the course of erection preparatory to the casting of three walls of a room.

FIG. 3 illustrates the manner in which formwork is provided for the casting of the roof of the room,

FIGS. 4 and 4a illustrate the manner in which the roof structure is completed over corridors.

The first step in the construction of the house is to lay down a reinforced concrete slab covering the total floor area of the building. This slab is constructed in accordance with conventional techniques in so far as the preparation of the foundations and the pouring of the slab are concerned with the exception that lengths of reinforcing steel are left projecting from the upper surface of the slab in lines co-inciding with the position of the walls of the building.

The subsequent steps in the completion of the building are illustrated in FIG. 1. On the slab 10 the three walls of a first room 11 are cast in reinforced concrete by means of suitable formwork referred to in more detail below. Over the three walls of room 11 a roof is cast.

The walls of a second room 12 are then cast in the position shown in 1B and a roof formed over them. In 1C a third room 13 is shown and as will be seen one wall of this room constitutes the fourth wall of room 12. In these diagrams doors and windows have been omitted for the sake of clarity. Door frames and window frames are set up in the formwork before pouring the concrete for the walls. 1D, 1E, and IF show the adding of subsequent rooms 14, 15, 16 and 16 shows the adding of a room 17 and garage 18 to complete the house. It will be seen that a corridor 20 is left between the rooms and in order to complete the roof structure it is necessary to provide a roof over this corridor in the manner described below.

In FIG. 2 forms 21 have been assembled to define the interior surfaces of three walls of a room. From the floor slab 10 lengths of reinforcing iron 22 have been left projecting to tie the walls to the floor slab. A window frame 23 and door frame 24 are shown in position in the formwork as are electric conduits 25 and connection boxes 26 all of which are in their fixed positions of use in the completed building. Some of the reinforcing metal for one wall is shown at 27 as is one exterior form member 28 about to be placed in position to define a portion of the exterior surface of the wall. Other such members have been omitted for the sake of clarity. Galvanised sheet metal strips 31 serve to hold the exterior form members 28 in position during casting of the concrete. After the three walls have been formed the interior forms 21 are removed and transverse member 32 and vertical supports 33 (some only, being shown for clarity in FIG. 3) set up to enable a reinforced concrete roof to be cast on the completed walls. The upper ends of the exterior forms 28 serve to define the edge of the roof slab.

On the completion of one room the same formwork may be used for the next, thus reducing the amount of formwork required on the site. In many cases, however, time may be saved by having more than one set of form work on the site so that more than one room may be constructed .atatime.-

Where the open face of one room is closed by a wall of an adjacent room. suitable'sealing (not shown) means are provided between the walls and the roofs to provide a weatherproof structure, 1

Finally the roof structure is completed by casting slabs in position over corridor areas such as 20 existing between the rooms. Roof slabs over the corridors may stand up above the surface of the roofs as shown at 34 in FIG. 4 or may be constructed so as to be flush With them as shown at 35 in FIG. 4a.

In each case a weatherproof layer 36 of bitumen or other suitable material is provided over the whole roof surface.

The techniques used in carrying out the method according to the invention for construction of the building have not been described in great detail as they are largely conventional. The building may be produced with either solid or external cavity walls and any suitable decorative treatments may be applied internally or externally.

The invention may be applied to the construction of multistorey buildings by following a procedure essentially the same as that described above. On completion of the first floor of the building the roof is used as the (c) Casting on said three walls a roof sl'ab'in reinforced concrete-,1.-

- T: i s-h2 1:

(d) Casting three walls and a roof of additional rooms in turn on the unitary slab in the same manner as the first room, the rooms being juxtaposed in such a manner that the fourth} wall of each room is closed wholly or partially by a'tivallof an adjacent room,

(e) Completing the roof structure; -in'ter'nal cloorways being providedat appropriate spacesjin'the walls of individual rooms, door and window v fixed in positionin th'e walls-during cast with conduits for electricity andother services and weatherproof sealing means being provided at the junction of adjacent rooms where required.

2. A method as claimed in clainn-l wherein a multistorey building is constructed by util 'ng th"i oof of a ground storey constructed as claime d m thatcl repeating the steps set out therein-to prpvid aseeMtt storey and thereafter repeating 'the whol-proceduieto produce as many storeys as are requiredfor the building;

References Ci UNITED STATES PATENT 2,645,114 7/1953 Amirikian-.

FOREIGN PATIENTS; 607,279 10/1960. Canada j 1,106,146 7/1955 France;

865,652 2/1953 Gerinany' 530,372 7/1955 Italy 40, 879 1958 Poland FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Exa iner J. L. RIDGILL, JR., Assistant Examiner 1 us. 01. X.R.-' 

